Who else is stoked to plant tomatoes?

It's still called a water mold, reclassified or not
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oomycota

 

I don't understand the contention here. Late blight does not overwinter in the soil. It require a living host such as potato seedlings. And late light makes spores capable of traveling many miles. It can be spread by the use of imported seedling and plugs. "Because the oomycete that causes late blight produces so many spores, and the spores can travel long distances through the air, it is very important that everyone who grows potatoes or tomatoes is able to identify late blight and know how to control it, to avoid being a source of spores that infect potatoes and tomatoes in neighboring gardens and commercial fields. This disease is capable of wiping out not only your entire potato and tomato crop but also commercial fields very quickly under wet conditions, and farmers who grow potatoes or tomatoes are at serious risk of losing their entire income from these crops." http://www.nysipm.cornell.edu/publications/blight/

 

More of my front lawn gets the dirt beat out of it for another 75 foot garden strip:
( some places stretch the common definition of 'lawn'.)

wave petunia bed:
(was a weed patch a few days ago)

 

I get home to find someone ate one of my huskies. Who eats tomato plants???

 

If you are interested in growing tomatoes up a stake and pruning to get those specimen tomatoes, this video may interest you. http://m.videojug.com/film/how-to-prune-tomatoes

 

You might get away with that twine in a greenhouse but that stuff fails pretty quick after sitting out all summer and the weight of fruit on an 8 ft tall vine on it. Mason string is worth a little extra for this purpose imo.

 

Very discouraging to have a line, stake, or trellis fail under the weight of a heavy tomato plant. I like to use zip ties. very quick, and I can use multiples of them to avoid bending and breaking. you can also use an old nylon stocking to keep extra large tomatoes from breaking off the vine.

 

Yep, my first year single vining with twine resulted in every last one of them failing. Restringing 8 ft vines full of fruit wasn't the end of the world but got old. On the flip side, I really like the system and doubt I'll ever do anything else. It is arguably more work upfront but makes everything easier later on.

 

I made tomato cages out of concrete reinforcing mesh. I have about 15 years on mine. I cut the bottom ring off, leaving the verticals to stick into the ground. When the vines get top heavy the cages can need a guy line to keep them from falling over.

 

Just love a BLT made with a thick slice of fresh garden grown tomatoes.

 

Matters would freeze around these parts, 39 for a low tonight and at least 10 regions in Maine are under frost advisories tonight and early tomorrow.

 

Horn worms do, every bit of the plant and its fruit given a chance.

ETA: http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/CoopExt/4DMG/images1/hrnwrm10.jpg

 

Smokey is soooooo right about that. I never had them until a couple years ago. Huge things and very ugly.

 

Smokey also has a cure for that as well, BT every couple of weeks during the summer. Fight them 'pillers with bacteria.

 

Against my better judgement, I tilled over the weekend and planted the tomatoes on Monday. The ground was still pretty damp but if I didn't start getting stuff in, there wouldn't be any fresh tomato this year.

 

Got a few 'maters on my plants...

 

Saw some huge plants on sale at Sam's club. They had huge clusters of big green tomatoes on them. Had a handsome price on them too! I tried a couple of those a few years back. They stopped growing when I got them home. Total waste of money. I think they must have been determinant. I should have figured that out but I was blinded by being able to have tomatoes so early. I actually got some ripe ones just as early on plants I grew. We now can get vine ripe tomatoes nearly any time from an outfit here in Maine. Just not priced right for canning.

 

While those planters at Sam's look impressive, you can buy substantially more tomatoes at the farmer's market than what those plants will produce for the same $.

 

So true. But it is the experience! Picking that ripe tomato in your garden might be comparable to buying a fish at at market as compared to catching one.